"FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
The following quote from John W9EN hit home with me.
"FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
I am an AMSAT old timer (Amsat LM-0875) who had been inactive in ham radio for a decade or two. Recently I got back on the air. The easiest way to get back on the air was 2M/70cm repeaters. The activity level on the repeaters here in Madison is at an very low level. In the old days you could always find someone on the repeaters. I was a bit surprised to say the least.
Back in the day I worked WAS on Oscar using scratch built transverters. I thought I might give the current satellites a try. I thought my gear was not working but I guess it is the low level of activity on the sats. The same situation occurred about 65 million years ago when the few remaining dinosaurs stood around and asked themselves - where is everybody. Today "everybody" is playing Angry Birds on their iWhatever or tweeting the fact that they are up and going to have breakfast soon.
One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the internet for discussions. I searched for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded discussion system with actual search capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current system works great - "for them". That is always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks like things just fine the way they are.
73 tom W9KE
P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur.
Too true. I have fun with the late night passes. They allow me to play without qrm'ing the folks during the day. if you feel adventurous, I'll be up on the late (2.30am east coast time) fo-29 pass. Might stick around for the 4.20 pass too Hey, maybe AO-51 is up??.. 73 de Norm n3ykf
I suspect you will not be very lonely this weekend. I will be camping on FO-29 CW every pass I can get at Field Day from EL87 in St. Petersburg. I'm hoping we get our bonus points and many more contacts on the linear birds. I might listen to AO-51 and AO-27 for kicks to listen to the zoo. :) We will be using W4TA.
73,
Tom Schaefer, NY4I ny4i@arrl.net EL88pb Monitoring EchoLink node KJ4FEC-L 489389 DSTAR Capable APRS: NY4I-15
On Jun 23, 2011, at 1:01 AM, normn3ykf@stny.rr.com normn3ykf@stny.rr.com wrote:
Too true. I have fun with the late night passes. They allow me to play without qrm'ing the folks during the day. if you feel adventurous, I'll be up on the late (2.30am east coast time) fo-29 pass. Might stick around for the 4.20 pass too Hey, maybe AO-51 is up??.. 73 de Norm n3ykf _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Thomas,
Great story. One thing I would like to add, you suggest Yahoo style, what about a forum on for example the amsat website?
73 from another dinosaur - Jan PE0SAT
On Wed, June 22, 2011 16:00, Thomas Doyle wrote:
The following quote from John W9EN hit home with me.
"FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
I am an AMSAT old timer (Amsat LM-0875) who had been inactive in ham radio for a decade or two. Recently I got back on the air. The easiest way to get back on the air was 2M/70cm repeaters. The activity level on the repeaters here in Madison is at an very low level. In the old days you could always find someone on the repeaters. I was a bit surprised to say the least.
Back in the day I worked WAS on Oscar using scratch built transverters. I thought I might give the current satellites a try. I thought my gear was not working but I guess it is the low level of activity on the sats. The same situation occurred about 65 million years ago when the few remaining dinosaurs stood around and asked themselves - where is everybody. Today "everybody" is playing Angry Birds on their iWhatever or tweeting the fact that they are up and going to have breakfast soon.
One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the internet for discussions. I searched for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded discussion system with actual search capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current system works great - "for them". That is always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks like things just fine the way they are.
73 tom W9KE
P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur. _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Spot on. This is the only listserv left on my list when there used to be about over 50.
FO-29 usage from here in the UK has been pretty good to me, but I don't follow as many passes as I'd like.
Dominic G6NQO
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
-----Original Message----- From: Thomas Doyle tomdoyle1948@gmail.com Sender: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:00:10 To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] "FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
The following quote from John W9EN hit home with me.
"FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
I am an AMSAT old timer (Amsat LM-0875) who had been inactive in ham radio for a decade or two. Recently I got back on the air. The easiest way to get back on the air was 2M/70cm repeaters. The activity level on the repeaters here in Madison is at an very low level. In the old days you could always find someone on the repeaters. I was a bit surprised to say the least.
Back in the day I worked WAS on Oscar using scratch built transverters. I thought I might give the current satellites a try. I thought my gear was not working but I guess it is the low level of activity on the sats. The same situation occurred about 65 million years ago when the few remaining dinosaurs stood around and asked themselves - where is everybody. Today "everybody" is playing Angry Birds on their iWhatever or tweeting the fact that they are up and going to have breakfast soon.
One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the internet for discussions. I searched for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded discussion system with actual search capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current system works great - "for them". That is always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks like things just fine the way they are.
73 tom W9KE
P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur. _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
That's actually a very good discussion. I too got back into ham radio after about 20 years of absence and of course bought a sat ready rig (FT-736R), built an antenna and off I went. I had my first QSO on AO-07 and was stoked because apparently the antenna I built out of PVC pipe and copper tubing (IOio) worked and I made a successful contact. After that I put up a basic rotor with two beams and was hoping to have more fun. Well .. I'm not sure if that stressful exchanging of grids on the FM sats can be classified as fun and I also found myself pretty lonely on the SSB sats which made me question if I really want to go the next step to get a AZ/EL rotor, pre-amps etc. and spend all that money just to have maybe a handful QSOs a month. So I'll be monitoring here for a bit more to see what the situation is like. In the meantime I sold the FT-736R to fund a newer HF radio and postponed more extensive station building.
So what is the state of affairs really with SSB sats in the US? It seems that they're more active in Europe.
73 Mike K5TRI
On Jun 22, 2011, at 9:00 AM, Thomas Doyle wrote:
The following quote from John W9EN hit home with me.
"FO-29 performs well. Its a shame I often find myself the only one on during the pass "
I am an AMSAT old timer (Amsat LM-0875) who had been inactive in ham radio for a decade or two. Recently I got back on the air. The easiest way to get back on the air was 2M/70cm repeaters. The activity level on the repeaters here in Madison is at an very low level. In the old days you could always find someone on the repeaters. I was a bit surprised to say the least.
Back in the day I worked WAS on Oscar using scratch built transverters. I thought I might give the current satellites a try. I thought my gear was not working but I guess it is the low level of activity on the sats. The same situation occurred about 65 million years ago when the few remaining dinosaurs stood around and asked themselves - where is everybody. Today "everybody" is playing Angry Birds on their iWhatever or tweeting the fact that they are up and going to have breakfast soon.
One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the internet for discussions. I searched for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded discussion system with actual search capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current system works great - "for them". That is always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks like things just fine the way they are.
73 tom W9KE
P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur. _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Hi Mike!
So what is the state of affairs really with SSB sats in the US? It seems that they're more active in Europe.
There are fewer operators working SSB than FM via satellite, but there are some. FO-29 may not be the best example of SSB satellite activity - or lack thereof - due to its pass times. During the week, it passes by way too early in the morning and during the workday in the afternoon for me to get on. I will try to work FO-29 passes on some weekend afternoons, and whenever I am operating away from home.
If you are looking for more activity, don't forget to try AO-7 and VO-52. When it isn't blazing hot here in the desert, I'll work them on weeknights. Most of my satellite time, FM or SSB, is confined to the weekends. I have not tried mode A on AO-7 due to not having an adequate portable 10m antenna, but have had lots of fun with mode B. VO-52 is where many start out on SSB satellite operating, with its strong downlink. I operate a portable all-mode satellite station in the absence of a home station, and have fun using all the FM and SSB satellites. I plan on being somewhere in Arizona this weekend for Field Day working satellites. Maybe even some HF and 6m, depending on time, and all at 5W (I have worked Field Days as a 1B/1-op/battery station since 2001, and on the satellites since 2006).
As for W9KE's comment about a Yahoogroup (or, as others mentioned, a web-based forum) instead of this e-mail list, I know there are advantages for both. For me, I can use an e-mail client on a computer or mobile phone, or free e-mail services like Gmail, to track AMSAT-BB messages by discussion thread and post to the list. A browser isn't mandatory to participate on this list, which is helpful when away from home and my mobile phone may be my only Internet access. Google does a great job of searching AMSAT-BB messages, since the message archives are publicly available - a great way to combine the "old school" e-mail list with the modern ability to quickly search for messages posted to the list.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
One thing I forgot regarding Internet discussions. What's holding you back from creating a Yahoo or Google group and promote it so that people can actually join and start the conversation?
73 Mike K5TRI
On Jun 22, 2011, at 9:00 AM, Thomas Doyle wrote:
One thing that would help the satellite hobby is a more modern use of the internet for discussions. I searched for an Amsat yahoo group and could not find anything. Some sort of threaded discussion system with actual search capability like the yahoo groups would be much more useful than the current 'old school' listserv. Unfortunately the few people who read this will think I am nuts and that the current system works great - "for them". That is always the situation when something is in decline - the few remaining folks like things just fine the way they are.
73 tom W9KE
P.S. the spell checker on my email system picked the word "transverters" as misspelled. It suggested "transvestites" as a possible correct spelling. I guess I am truly a dinosaur. _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (7)
-
Dominic Hawken -
Michael Schulz -
normn3ykf＠stny.rr.com -
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) -
PE0SAT -
Thomas Doyle -
Tom Schaefer, NY4I